The Unselfish Gene
Are humans really a selfish species ruled by competition and self-interest? Zoe Cormier surveys the ideas of recent thinkers who argue that biology and evolution prove we are natural co-operators.
1 July 2012
Illuminating Life
Since its discovery 50 years ago, Green Fluorescent Protein has become one of the most useful tools in biology.
1 July 2012
Stressed grasshoppers slow plant decay
Fear of predators affect nutrient cycling in whole ecosystem.
19 June 2012
Is the Green New Deal a dead duck?
Four years ago it was hailed as the cure for our economic and environmental woes. So what’s happened?
1 March 2012
Malaria death toll disputed
Study doubles official estimate, but scientists say its methods are flawed.
3 February 2012
Biofuel from beneath the waves
Engineered bacterium can produce ethanol directly from seaweed.
19 January 2012
What Does a Deaf Rave Sound Like?
Sencity has put on raves for the deaf in Mexico, Brazil, Finland, Spain, and South Africa, with Montreal on the agenda for 2012. What, no Toronto?
6 December 2011
Is the BBC dumbing down?
Natural History on the BBC has taken a drastic departure from its unabashedly nerdy roots. And what about that episode on climate change that was canned?
25 November 2011
Growth is not the solution
"But perhaps the core myth of our time is that deliberation of economic matters is pointless – or best left to experts. Neither is true."
23 November 2011
The Reel McCoy
In an age when our lives are steeped in pixels, photographs created with traditional techniques can’t help but be striking.
23 November 2011
Fluorescent spray tags cancer cells
Japanese researchers have developed a probe for ovarian cancer that can be sprayed onto tissue during surgery
23 November 2011
Sencity: More than a deaf rave
You’d easily mistake it for simply an opulent club night – until you saw the hands waving in the air.
16 November 2011
Returning to Leslieville
The scale of the changes seen in the neighbourhood can be overwhelming, especially for someone who grew up there and returns intermittently from abroad. Assessing Leslieville then and now.
21 October 2011
Glowing cells guide cancer surgeons
Tumour-specific label pinpoints malignant cells.
19 September 2011
Orangutan > Me
I expected to smell better than two boys who had not washed for 40 days. I did not expect to be deemed less attractive than an orangutan.
17 August 2011
English Lessons
Welcome to the strange experience of the English music festival, a five-day endurance test of rain, music, chemicals and costumes.
28 July 2011
Respiratory virus jumps from monkeys to humans
Adenovirus remained infectious after crossing species barrier.
14 July 2011
Dirt, nudity and tears at Glastonbury
Guerilla Science brought their own unique brand of scientific outreach to this year's Glastonbury festival, providing decontamination services to mud-spattered revellers
30 June 2011
Bacterial Culture
On the outside: a sleek and smooth white briefcase, sporting a bright silver handle, cheerfully labeled “E. chromi” in a cursive font, each letter a different colour of the rainbow. On the inside: an assortment of stool samples, each also brightly spotted in a different colour of the rainbow, cushioned neatly into white pockets for easy examination.
25 April 2011
In deep water
Protest, anger and controversy at the BP Annual General Meeting: "This is the last chance to hold the company accountable."
15 April 2011
Hygiene Hypothesis: London’s Feast of Filth
“Please put your genitals on the table.” Epidemiologist and author Elizabeth Pisani was speaking to a crowd of 60 diners sitting beneath the gilded iron arches of a Victorian sewage pumping station. “No, you cannot trade your genitals with your neighbour — you have to take the genitals you are given.”
6 April 2011
Diners tuck into a Dirt Banquet
Guests ate bacterial jelly, mud cakes and a posset of whale expectorant as part of the Wellcome Trust's Dirt Season
5 April 2011
Have we reached The Tipping Point?
The fate of Alberta’s tar sands may be a turning point for civilization
15 March 2011
‘Safe for use’ – but not in Canada
Last week a delegation from the Asian Ban Asbestos Network, including cancer victims and widows, travelled from their homes in Indonesia, India and elsewhere to ask the Quebec government not to revive a dying industry that has brought cancer and death to millions of people around the world.
13 December 2010
Peasants cool the planet
"A lot of NGOs who talk about climate change are only thinking about polar bears and trees – they are not familiar with how people’s lives are impacted. This is something that is, unfortunately, often missing from the broader environmental movement."
8 December 2010
Neural Renovation
If all else failed, would you choose to burn away the connections in your mind if it took the pain away?
2 December 2010
Why we should still care about HIV/AIDS
We can’t yet put our worries about this virus to rest.
1 December 2010
Surgery of the Soul
Over the eyeball, under the eyelid, and straight on till morning: Lobotomy techniques, past and present, for the alleviation of psychosis, delusions, and emotional distress.
30 November 2010
Thrown away
One week it’s a farmer’s field, and the next it’s a teeming mass of people, tents, stages, toilets, kitchens and bars. British music festivals are some of the biggest parties on the planet, so naturally they can leave a bit of a mess behind. Zoe Cormier looks at the clean up.
1 November 2010
A new kind of prosperity
A conversation with renegade environmental economist Tim Jackson.
26 October 2010